NORTH COVENTRY — The investigation continued Wednesday in the murder of a 17-year-old from Norristown who was found dead Tuesday night in a township apartment that was reported on fire.

Blood smeared the wall of a staircase leading to the second-story apartment in Hanover Garden Apartments where Kevin Allen’s body was found Tuesday night.

Allen, 17, was a junior at Norristown Area High School.

“It does not appear to be a random act,” Chester County District Attorney Thomas P. Hogan said Wednesday afternoon during a press conference in West Chester. “At this point, preliminarily, I would say that it is one person, acting alone.”

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Around 7:15 p.m. Tuesday, North Coventry police and multiple area fire companies responded to a 911 call from a resident in the area of the Hanover Garden Apartments on the 200 block of East Schuylkill Road, according to Hogan.

When emergency responders arrived, they discovered a fire in apartment 127, which was extinguished quickly, the district attorney said.

Soot was visible Tuesday night on the inside of the windows, and there were char marks on the outside of the building.

Allen’s body was removed from the apartment after midnight and was taken to the Chester County Coroner’s Office.

The cause of his death has not been released. An autopsy was scheduled for Wednesday night.

Hogan said the apartment is being rented by Allen’s father, but the father was not home at the time of the incident. Hogan said the father is the only resident of the apartment.

Allen’s parents are not considered suspects and are cooperating with authorities, Hogan said.

“They are devastated,” Hogan said. “They lost a 17-year-old son.”

Hogan is not releasing any more information about possible suspects or persons of interest.

Police did what Hogan called a routine walk-through Wednesday afternoon of the Mount Zion Cemetery across the street from the apartment complex. Hogan said that police walked the entire area, starting at the apartment complex to see if they could find anything.

But he did not tell reporters at the press conference if anything was discovered during the search.

A neighbor said that she didn’t know what was happening, but that some residents were told to evacuate.

“They just said there was a fire. I was in my night clothes and I had to jump in something and go,” said the woman, who declined to be identified.

She said that she still feels safe in the apartment, despite the incident.

Hogan said that the apartment complex residents have been cooperative.

“In this case, the murderer made some mistakes, so we have multiple leads to work on. But it is an ongoing investigation so we will not be releasing any other details at this time,” Hogan said.